Cracked Memories
by forgetyouinsiberia
Summary: A year and a half ago, someone tried to kill Aria Montgomery, and Ezra Fitz will do anything to bring her back home and make sure she'll be safe again.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **So, I've had this idea for a few months now, and I've been putting it off because I literally had no clue how to start it. Because of that, I just decided to dive in and see where this goes. I do want to point out that before we get started, I will very likely take a number of artistic liberties with this story. Certain events will have changed, but I'll try to keep things as canon as possible. And of course,** your feedback is SUPER IMPORTANT**. I honestly have no clue if anyone even wants to read this, so...yeah :)

_Cracked Memories & Broken Dreams_

_Prologue_

Snow flitted towards the ground as Aria stood in Spencer Hasting's back yard, looking around silently. There were no lights to guide her way, and she was too wary to use her cell phone to light up the dark. She'd long learned to find her way with just her senses.

Voices and footsteps emitted from some yards away and she whipped her head up, glancing towards the side of the Hastings home. She couldn't be seen. Not this way. But as the voices grew louder, panic continued to fill her. She had to get away.

"_C'mon, Ali. That is never going to happen," _Spencer's voice commented. Bushes moved. Trees made noise.

Aria dashed across the yard to the small gap between the side of the Hastings' home and the fence that blocked it from the neighbors view. It was a tight squeeze as hedges lined the house, but she managed it, pushing herself far enough into the space that she couldn't be seen.

"_No lawyer is ever going to convict him, Spencer," _Alison chided. _"His sister was killed and left in a car to burn. Mike Montgomery is going to get away with everything he's done to us-"  
_

"_No, he won't." _Spencer argued. _"They won't just let him off. They can't. And where are Emily and Hanna?"_

"_Coming," _Alison replied. _"Emily had to stop home on her way."_

A door opened. The light from inside the home brightened up the back yard. Aria cringed as she realized her red coat could be seen in the light. She pushed herself further into the darkness beside the house, cringing as a stray twig dug into her hip. She bit down into her lips to keep from screaming.

"_Are you coming?" _Alison asked. Her voice sounded farther away.

Aria pushed further into the space between the house and the fence, grimacing as the twig scraped her side.

"_Just a minute," _Spencer replied.

Aria whipped her head back towards the back yard. Spencer Hastings was a smart woman, and also Aria's biggest threat at ever being caught.

She pushed herself even further down the side of the house, feeling the side of her jacket rip as she shoved towards the front of the house. Even so, she kept moving and soon enough, she broke through the side of the house into the front. She ran towards the trees, already digging for her phone in her pocket. She already had the text message prepped and ready to send. She pulled her phone from her pocket as she ran and lit up the screen, praying that Spencer wasn't following her through the trees, and if she was, that Aria had enough of a head start to get away before she got caught.

She tapped the send button on her phone and then shoved it in the pocket of her jeans, discarding the torn jacket as she ran. She shivered in the cold February air, only clad in black jeans and a long-sleeved dark blue shirt. She switched directions as she came to a fork in the trees, and made her way into someone else's back yard. She ran through the yard to the other side and then passed around the side of the house to the street. She glanced up and down the side of it, looking for any sight of anyone who might catch her, and then she ran for the silver car at the end of the block.

"Aria!"

Her hand grasped the back seat door handle and she threw it open, diving inside.

"Drive!" She growled as she tossed herself towards the floor. She barely had the door shut as the car suddenly started and made a tight turn, heading in the opposite direction it had been parked.

Some time later, the car idled to a stop, and Aria sat up straighter, glancing around the outside of the car. All she saw was trees.

"How far out of town are we?" She asked.

The car idled to the side of the road.

"Far enough that you don't have to lay on the floor anymore."

Aria moved onto the back seat and then opened the passenger back door before stepping out of the car. She shoved the door closed and then walked to the front passenger door and opened it before getting back inside the car. She closed the door and moved to pull her seatbelt on, only to wince when she turned her side.

"Are you alright?" Ezra asked.

"I got caught in some trees," Aria replied as she pulled the seatbelt over her body. "I had to ditch the coat."

Ezra raised his eyebrows at her. "Aren't you worried about them finding you?"

"Why?" Aria asked. "There's nothing in the pockets. And who are they going to go to? Wilden is certain one of them have killed me."

Ezra shook his head, turning his attention back towards the road. He pulled the car back onto it, rubbing his forehead. Aria rolled her eyes and glanced towards the trees passing by her window. This was an argument they had often, but it always ended the same.

Ezra didn't like that she was risking getting found alive to keep tabs on her friends. It stressed him out, and she had the inkling that sometimes he wished he wouldn't have ever loved her. Then he could've walked away when everything happened, instead of still being involved in this a year and a half later.

"I needed to know that Mike was safe," she told him after a few minutes of silence. She still stared at the trees.

Ezra didn't respond, but his hand soon came to rest on hers, resting in her lap. Aria finally turned and looked at him.

"Are you mad?" She asked him.

Ezra shook his head, making a turn onto another road. It was dark out here in the middle of nowhere, and the only light came from the lights on the car.

"I hate all the running and hiding," he replied. "I hate that you're not safe at home, and I hate that we're still no closer to knowing what happened that night."

"What about Mike?" Aria questioned.

"He's better off being caught now," Ezra told her. "When this all comes out, he doesn't need to be the one who goes down for it all. And he needs the help."

Aria chewed her bottom lip as she turned and looked back at the trees once more. Tears burned in her eyes as she thought about the events that had taken place in the past few months.

"You know it's not your fault, right?" Ezra asked. His driving began to slow, and she knew they were close to the cabin. Ezra squeezed her hand.

"It is though." She told him. "This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."

Aria stared at Ezra's back as she watched his fingers flitted over the keyboard. Ever the one to keep information in proper order and keep people on their toes, he could give Spencer a run for her money. The funniest part of that was that Spencer had no clue that her own teacher didn't trust her.

Aria dropped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, chewing on her bottom lip as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. She missed her family and her friends. She wanted more than anything to just go home and tell her parents she was in fact alive instead of constantly staying in the shadows and letting everyone move on with their lives.

Her parents weren't even together anymore. She'd gotten that information from Ezra a few months ago. Granted, their marriage had been strained before everything had happened, but apparently her 'death' had been what finally driven them apart. Now, Ella lived in a two bedroom apartment near Rosewood Day while Mike was splitting his time between their old home and Ella's place.

There was no room for Aria to re-enter her old life anymore. At least that's how it felt.

It wasn't like she'd actually set out to leave her family behind. She wanted more than anything to go back home and crawl beneath her blankets. She wanted Byron to hug her and inhale the scent of his cologne. She wanted Ella to complain over the stove while she made veggie burgers because Aria refused to eat meat. She wanted her grandmother to call and refuse to talk to her father because he'd done something new to anger her, and then spend half an hour getting a lecture about the clothes she was wearing in the most recent photo her grandmother had gotten.

She wanted to hug everyone she loved. That wasn't an option anymore, though.

More than a year before, she'd been on track to finish high school early and start college courses at Hollis. Granted, she was also in the position of having to tell her parents that the guy she'd been dating all summer was now apparently going to be her teacher, but that was her biggest worry. And then somehow, she'd ended up in a crashed car, covered in cuts and bruises, and she had no clue how she'd gotten there. She'd ran from the scene, leaving blood, hair, and skin cells in her wake and sought out Ezra. He'd cleaned her up as best he could and then took her to his father in New York, where they got her properly treated and protected her.

She'd intended to return to Rosewood after a few days, when she could come up with a proper explanation as to what had happened. But that never happened because she couldn't remember how she'd ended up in that car alone, and the day she and Ezra were set to drive back, news broke of a car found on the edge of town in Rosewood. There was no explanation as to what had happened, but a body burned beyond recognition was found in the passenger seat, and determined to be Aria Montgomery.

As far as anyone in Rosewood, Pennsylvania was concerned, she was dead, having been killed in a car accident that involved a stolen car and no traceable source to who had caused it. Rosewood PD believed Aria's friends had something to do with her demise, but they couldn't prove it.

Ezra had promised her when he'd left her in New York that weekend that he'd find out what had really happened and that he would return for her, but weeks turned into months, and no leads turned up. Her friends grieved, and then moved on with their lives. Her parents started divorce proceedings. Mike was falling apart, and no one was paying attention.

Ezra was the first person to realize what Mike was doing. He noticed the boy's lack of attention in class, and knew about what was going on in the Montgomery home-at least, as much as Ella would tell him. Ezra wanted to tell her parents about his relationship with her, but Aria had told him she thought it would cause more harm than good. So they stayed a secret to everyone.

As it was, he'd caught Mike ransacking Spencer's locker in the middle of the night one evening when he'd gone back to check records in the system for his own search of the truth, and that was when he found out that Mike was stalking Spencer, Emily, Hanna, and Alison for answers. He too believed that they knew more about the night Aria 'was killed' than they were letting on, and he was determined to find answers. When Aria had found out-via e-mail, of all forms of communication-she'd insisted Ezra keep an eye on Mike and make sure that he didn't do anything that got himself or one of her friends seriously hurt or killed. And in that agreement, Ezra became what Mike liked to say 'Ultimate A'.

Granted, taking on the role had given Ezra a broader set of options when it came to seeking out information from Aria's friends, but it also put him in the line of fire to be convicted of **a lot** of crimes if he ever got caught. Aria worried about that constantly, but she also knew that if someone didn't tighten the reigns on Mike's angry movements as 'A', someone was going to end up seriously hurt.

The only problem in all of the hunting that had been done in the past sixteen months, very little had been turned up that could help any of them. Aria still couldn't remember anything from the day of the accident, and Ezra was running out of time to figure who had tried to kill her. So two months earlier, she made the decision to abandon her life in New York-under the new identity of Harper Buchanan. Ezra could be way too sentimental sometimes-and return to Rosewood to aid in her own investigation.

It was an odd predicament. Looking at the evidence from her own supposed murder horrified her. First it was because she'd nearly died in that car, and then it was because someone obviously did. And then, when she was standing on the side of the road where someone had clearly left her to die, it made her feel a million times worse to not be able to recall anything.

She'd been searching for answers to a past she couldn't remember for ages now, or so it felt.

The bed dipped beside her, and Aria glanced over at Ezra, quickly whipping a hand back to wipe away the tears on her face.

"Maybe you should go back to New York for a while," Ezra suggested. "Spend some time away from all of this."

Aria sighed, turning her head to see him fully. "I'm sick and tired of living in the shadows and pretending to be someone else. I want to be myself again. I want my life back, Ezra. I-I want my parents, and my brother, and my friends!"

Ezra didn't respond, but he usually didn't when Aria got upset like this. He let her vent about how much she hated her current lifestyle and desperately wanted her life back.

"Am I just stupid?" She asked after a minute of silence. "Am I dumb to believe one day we'll know what happened and I'll be able to come home? I mean honestly, Ezra. This was supposed to solve my problems, not make them worse."

Ezra leaned up on the bed, hovering over her as he brushed her hair away from her face. "No. You're not stupid. And I promise I will find a way for you to come home again some day. I don't know how or when...but I'll make it happen."

Aria stared down at the computers on the other end of the room, chewing her bottom lip as tears ran down her face. "I just want to go back to that night and never get in that car."

Ezra kissed her temple and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Aria turned into him and buried her face in his shirt, inhaling a deep breath. For all the weight and pain in her chest, there was a comfort in having him there with her. Hell, Ezra had been the only constant the past year and a half. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he ever gave up.

.,.

Aria's hands trembled as she stood in the waiting area of Radley. Ezra was totally against her making this trip, but she needed it for her own sanity. She needed to know that Mike was going to be okay and that there was still hope that she could come home one day.

"Ms. Buchanan?"

Aria looked up as one of the nurses called her name. She was at the sanitarium under the guise that she had come to do a consult on behalf of Mike's therapist-something else Aria hadn't known was going on in his life until recently.

She had to be grateful for Ezra and his father once more, though. If it weren't for them, she wouldn't be able to be getting along as easily as she was with-an albeit **fake**-new life without their help. Granted, she hated the idea that she was basically asking one of New York PD's finest to forge documents on her behalf, but Ethan Fitz was willing to bend over backwards to do whatever it took to help. Aria sometimes wondered if that had more to do with the fact that Dianne had hated her, and Ethan usually did the opposite as Ezra's mother. Either way, he'd helped to make her life easier in a lot of ways.

"Mr. Montgomery is ready for you," the nurse told her.

Aria nodded and followed after the woman, keeping her head down as she followed the woman down a hall. Even though she was wearing a blond wig and sunglasses that covered half her face, the last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself.

They passed down a number of hallways, and then she was let into the locked adolescents ward before she was led down another hallway. They finally came to stand in front of a room with a closed door. The nurse slid a key card through the access panel, and then the door was unlocked, and she pushed the door open.

"Thank you," Aria murmured as she stepped past the woman into the room. The woman nodded and then hovered for a second before letting the door slide shut.

Aria finally turned around when the woman was out of sight, and she turned towards the bed. Mike was seated upon it, staring at her somewhat skeptically. Aria reached up and eased the sunglasses off her face as she exhaled a deep breath. Mike's brow furrowed at the sight of her, like he was confused, trying to make his reality match what he was seeing.

"It's me, Mike," she said as she reached up and pulled the wig off her head.

Mike was quiet for a few moments, staring at her for well over a minute. Aria began to grow nervous, worrying that maybe he was too medicated to realize that what he was seeing was real.

"Mike?" She spoke softly, not wanting to scare him.

He moved slowly off the bed, and started to walk towards her. Aria gulped, staying as still as possible as he walked towards her. When they were standing toe-to-toe, he reached a hand up and then it hovered between them, fingers shaking.

Aria lifted a hand and pressed her palm against his. "I'm really here."

Mike shook his head with tears brimming his eyes. He yanked his hand down. "I'm dreaming. My sister is dead."

"No, I'm not," she told him insistently. She reached her hands out and grabbed his shoulders. "See? You can feel me. I'm here. This is real, I promise."

"No. Aria died in a car accident. You're lying," he told her.

Aria shook her head, reaching down and grabbing his hands. She lifted them to her face. "Real. Alive."

"But-"

Aria cut him off. "No buts. I'm here. Alive."

Mike's hands trailed her face as though he were looking for where a mask might be covering her, but he found nothing. "Aria?"

Aria nodded, feeling tears fill her own eyes. "It's me, Mikey. I'm here."

Mike launched himself at her, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck. Aria hugged him back just as tightly, forcing herself to breathe so she didn't start sobbing. She'd never thought this would ever happen again.

Just as quickly though, Mike released her. His hands grasped her biceps as he pushed her out her in front of him. "B-but how? Why?"

Aria shook her head, inhaling a deep breath. "I can't explain right now, but I needed you to know everything you did wasn't for nothing. That I'm gonna come home one day."

"Who did it?" Mike asked tearfully. "Who k- _tried_ to kill you?"

Aria shook her head again, her bottom lip trembling. "I don't know. I can't remember. But Ezra-" 

"He was the guy," Mike commented. "Right? The guy from that summer?" 

Aria nodded. "He's not going to give up. We'll find out who did it."

"I shouldn't have let them catch me," Mike said. "I should've kept searching. I have to find out; bring you home-"

"No," Aria said. She planted her hands on his neck, forcing him to look at her. "No. You need to grieve. You need to fade silently into the background with all of this. It's the only way we can both go home one day. Mike, **please**."

"But Aria-"

"**No**!" She insisted. "I know it's hard, and I promise I'll try to come around or get in touch with you somehow. Ezra will help. But right now, you need to face this." She frowned as she gulped. "You need to accept that I'm gone, and you can't tell anyone otherwise. Let everyone think you're hurting, as you should be."

"When will I see you again?" Mike asked.

Aria shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. I have to stay out of sight for a while, but I'll try to see you again. I don't know how or when, but I will."

Mike looked as though he might cry, but Aria hugged him again, squeezing as tight as she could. She kept an eye on the door, making sure they were safe. Radley was too far behind the times to have security cameras up, and even so, they weren't allowed in the patients rooms.

"I promise I'll come back one day," she said in conclusion when she released him a minute later. She grabbed the wig she'd been wearing from the pocket of the red coat she was wearing and eased the wig back on her head before placing the sunglasses back on as well. "Do I look right?"

Mike nodded, inhaling a deep breath as he watched her. Once Aria was finished, she walked over to the door and used slipped a card down the side of the reader, unlocking the door from the inside. After she was out, she made her way towards the emergency exit in the back.

Once she was outside, she slipped off the red coat and folded it up as neatly as she could before pulling the hood up on the black hoodie she had on under it. She walked around the side of the Sanitarium and then up to the gates. She slipped between them with no trouble and then walked halfway down the block before crossing over and walking up to a black Camri. She pulled keys from the pocket of her sweater and unlocked the car before getting inside

Once she was settled, she reached into the center console and grabbed her phone-a very plain looking iPhone-and dialed Ezra's number while she started the car. She lifted it to her ear as she pulled onto the street and headed away from Radley. After a few rings, he picked up.

"_Hey, where are you?" _

"Just leaving," she responded as she turned onto a more populated street. "I'm gonna go back up to Brooklyn for a few days."

"_Are you sure?" _He asked. _"I can take a day-" _

"No, no," Aria insisted. "If you leave now, they'll get suspicious."

"_Maybe that's a good thing, though. Let them think Mike was behind it all for a few weeks. Maybe they'll relax. Let some things slip." _

Aria sighed. "I don't think that's going to help anything. Besides, if I've learned anything in the last few days, it's that this is a lot more complicated that I thought it was."

"_Then stay," _Ezra replied. _"I promise, we're gonna figure this out." _

"I know," she replied, if not a bit sadly. "But not in the next few days or even the next week. And if I stay here, I'm gonna get caught and then **actually **get killed. Just...come to me this weekend."

The line was silent for a few moments, and then Ezra finally spoke.

"_Are you sure?" _He asked.

"Yeah," she murmured. "I'll see you in a few days."

"_Alright," _Ezra replied. _"Drive safe." _

"I will. I love you," she told him. "Don't get yourself arrested or killed."

"_Promise to try not to," _Ezra chuckled. _"Love you too." _

Aria ended the call a second later and dropped her phone back into the center console as she drove towards the highway. She hated living the life of Harper Buchanan, though that had more to do with the fact that she wanted her own life back. Even so, she needed to spend a few days immersed in her alter ego so that she could get herself together before she ruined everything they'd been working for these past few months.

She **had **to find a way to come home someday. She'd promised Mike.


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

Ezra yawned as he stepped into the stepped inside the apartment his father resided in. He'd been in Rosewood later than he planned due to a party that had been thrown for someone or something. He couldn't remember specifically. He'd barely slept in the last three days.

Aria wanted him to continue seeking answers to what had happened to her; to let her friends just assume that Mike was set up to take the fall. Ezra felt that they needed to take a break and wait for a while. He figured if they did, maybe some kernel of the truth would slip. Granted, his choice had more to do with the fact that he was exhausted, but he couldn't blame her overzealous drive. Every day that passed lately seemed to drive Aria nuts because she couldn't go home. It was hard for Ezra to not want to do anything to bring her back to Rosewood when he saw how much it hurt her to be away from the people she loved.

The door opened as he was removing a cap from a bottled water and he glanced up, watching as his father stepped through the doorway.

"Late night?" Ezra asked.

Ethan glanced up at him as he kicked his shoes off. "Long case. How long are you here for?"

Ezra shrugged, stretching when the movement in his shoulders caused his back to pop. "Til Sunday, maybe."

"You kids ever think about taking a beat in all of this?" Ethan asked. "I know what it all means, but...I mean, she's still living here, and she's safe."

"Honestly, I'd love to," Ezra replied as he hopped up onto the counter. "But she wants to go home and be with her family. Who am I to tell her that she's wrong to want that? It's not like she left Rosewood out of choice."

Ethan nodded as he tugged his jacket off and hung it up. "It's unfortunate, really. Most people who are faced with the chance of a new identity jump at it. She wants nothing more than to give it back."

"It's because she didn't get to write that part of her story," Ezra responded. He took a drink from his water and then hopped down from the counter and headed towards the hallway. Ethan patted his shoulder as he passed by.

Ezra walked down the hallway to the end of it and climbed the stairs before walking down to the last door on his left open. He was surprised to find the nightstand light on and Aria seated in bed, reading from a tablet. At one point and time, it had been his, but she'd long since kidnapped it and made it her own.

"Isn't it a bit late for you to be awake?" He asked.

Aria shrugged. "I tried to sleep. Didn't happen. How was the party?"

Ezra rolled his eyes as he kicked his shoes off. "Stupid and boring. Although, I'm pretty sure Spencer's getting more suspicious than usual."

Aria nodded, chewing on her bottom lip as she put the tablet to sleep and placed it on the nightstand. "Well she almost caught me the other night, so I'm not surprised."

"What're you going to do if one of the girls catch you?" Ezra asked. He tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor before walking over to the bed.

"I've thought about it a lot, and honestly I don't know," Aria replied. "Part of me thinks that it's the worst thing that could happen because I don't have a clue who's involved in what happened. But the other part of me thinks that without _someone _knowing, we'll never get anywhere. I mean, we're a year and a half into this, and we know **nothing**."

"Well that's not true," Ezra disagreed. "We know you were with them that night."

Aria rolled her eyes at him this time, looking at him disdainfully. "Not my point."

Ezra smirked at her, but he nodded after a moment. "So what do you want to do then?"

Aria shrugged. "Think about it. If I tell the wrong person I'm not actually dead..." She paused, and couldn't help chuckling. "My life is a joke."

"Well, at least it'll make a great biography one day," Ezra commented, kissing her forehead.

_Ezra jerked up from his pillows, grimacing as he tried to figure out what the cause of his sudden alertness was. He was weary and out of it, having only just gotten to sleep after finishing up the lesson plan for his first week. School was starting in just under two days, and there were still things he needed to be done. _

_Pounding on his door made him jump from his bed. He rushed over to it and yanked the door open. Aria stood before him, shaking and covered in blood and dirt. _

"_I need your help," she said tearfully. _

"_Come in," he said in a rushed tone. He pulled the door open wider and then stepped aside, letting Aria pass through. She stumbled over to the couch, leaning against it while Ezra headed for the kitchen. He grabbed a clean bowl from the counter and filled it with water before grabbing a roll of paper towels and walking over to her. _

"_What happened?" He asked as he wet the towels and then began wiping dirt off her face. _

_Aria shook her head as tears ran down her face. "I don't know. I-I woke up in a car. I don't even know whose car it is." _

"_Where?" _

_Aria's bottom lip trembled as she shook her head again. "I don't know. I don't know anything!" _

"_You don't remember?" Ezra asked. _

"_No. I...I remember this morning, meeting you for coffee..." She paused, staring into space as though it would provide her with the answers she didn't have. "And then everything is blank." _

_Tears began to flow faster from Aria, and Ezra settled the dirty towels aside, moving onto the couch beside her. He encompassed her gently, doing his best not to hurt her. _

"_Shh," he whispered. "We'll figure this out." _

_Aria's eyes darted about the room as she tried to breathe deeper, trying desperately to calm herself down. _

"_Someone tried to kill me," she murmured. "And I have no idea why." _

"_Alright," Ezra commented. He turned Aria's face towards him, making him look at her. "We can figure this out. But right now, you need stitches, and more help than I can do here." _

_Aria shook her head wildly. "I c-can't go to the hospital. They'll call my parents, and then whoever drove that car will know I'm not still in it." _

_If they're not already in the hospital themselves, Ezra didn't say. "Alright. We'll go to my dad. He'll know what to do." _

_Aria cackled at the suggestion. "Your dad told you to break up with me when he found out about us." _

"_Because he's worried about the both of us," Ezra reminded her. "And that's not important right now, considering he's the only cop I know and trust." He stood from the couch and walked around it, grabbing the jeans he'd discarded a few hours earlier. He tossed them up onto the bed and then removed the sweatpants he had on before pulling the jeans on. _

_Afterwards, he rushed into his bathroom and grabbed every bit of bandaging he could find before returning to the living room. He settled in front of Aria on the coffee table and began bandaging her deepest wounds that he could see. _

_Once he was finished, he stood and returned behind the couch to grab two sweaters from his dresser. He gave Aria one with a zipper while he donned a pullover, and then he slipped his feet into a pair of runners before grabbing his keys off his dresser. _

"_Alright. Let's go." _

Aria awoke a few hours later, too restless to keep sleeping. She'd stayed up all night the evening before, but what Ezra didn't know was that she'd been sleeping a lot lately because she was bored. She'd been finished with school for several weeks, since she'd done all of her junior and senior year by correspondence.

She moved off the bed and walked to the end of it, removing her pajama pants in exchange for a pair of jeans resting on the top of a stack on the floor. She hated putting clothes away, and given that she was forced to wear outfits that didn't really fit her taste, her laziness with the clothes was even worse.

She pulled the black skinnies up her body quickly, hopping once to get them into the right place before she buttoned and zipped them. Afterwards, she tugged her pajama shirt-conveniently one of Ezra's old Hollis t-shirts-over her head and tossed it aside before opening the top drawer of the dresser in front of her and pulled out a clean bra.

"This is a really nice view."

Aria glanced over her shoulder at Ezra and chuckled, rolling her eyes. She pulled the bra on and then reached behind herself to clasp it.

"You were supposed to stay asleep," she commented.

Ezra shrugged. "I tend to notice when there's suddenly no warmth next to me."

"I'm just going to get coffee," Aria told him as she grabbed a shirt from another stack on the floor. She pulled it over her head and then grabbed a handful of cash from the dresser and tucking it into her front right pocket. She hated living off of money that Ezra and Ethan supplied her, but having a job didn't really afford her the freedom she needed to be in Rosewood at the drop of a hat, and it most definitely didn't keep her safe if someone from Rosewood suddenly turned up.

"Bring me back a vanilla macchiato with two shots of espresso," Ezra said.

Aria nodded as she headed over to the door. "And a blueberry muffin?"

Ezra nodded.

Aria walked out of the room and headed down the hall to the steps. The two-story manhattan apartment that Ethan Fitz owned was small in terms of it's width, but it made up for that in having a second floor with two bedrooms that were supposed to be occupied by Ezra, and his younger brother Wesley. Granted, Wesley very rarely came around due to the fact that Dianne, Ezra's mother, got primary placement in the divorce. Erza's relationship with his father was all due to his own choice to seek Ethan out after he finished highschool.

When Aria reached the first floor, she made her way over to the door and slipped her feet into a pair of boots sitting on a mud mat. The only other shoes sitting there were a pair of runners that she owned, and a pair of runners that belonged to Ethan. They were a lot dirtier and beat-up than her white and pink shoes.

She pulled her coat down from its hook above the shoes and slipped it on before heading out of the apartment and making her way down the steps from the third floor that the apartment resided on, and down to the street.

Unlike the home that Aria knew Ezra's mother resided in, Ethan-and Aria, when she stayed there-didn't reside in a Manhattan apartment building with a doorman and a lobby that could rival five star hotels. Instead, he chose a five-floor walk-up with people coming and going at all hours of the day. He was just as wealthy as his ex-wife, but he didn't expect that wealth to be the only thing he survived off, and he never had. He'd decided to become a cop after a college friend was nearly killed walking home one night, and the police never caught the suspect. Of course, Dianne Fitz never set out to marry a working man, so their marriage crumbled in the years afterwards.

Aria always knew she should be grateful to Ethan for all he had done for her-and for the most part, she really **really** was. Ethan had given her a home when she was suddenly unable to return to Rosewood. He had been the first person to suggest a private investigation into her death; granted, Aria was sure he never intended his son to be the one investigating. Still, Ethan seemed to genuinely care for her wellbeing, and he did everything he could to accommodate her, including giving her a roof to live under and money to survive without so much as a question why. Aria wasn't sure she deserved such charitable generosity, but she had nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. Ethan gave her a safe place to live and an entirely new identity while his son promised to find a way to bring her home. And yet, she still has wanted nothing more than to give it all up and go home.

Most days she spent in New York under the identity of Harper Buchanan, Aria hated her life. She hated going anywhere and talking to anybody. She hated the mere idea of even coming into contact with anyone she didn't already know, because she couldn't be Aria Montgomery. She had to be a shadow of the person Aria Montgomery was to the people she knew, because if she was too much like who she used to be, she'd risk slipping up, and she did enough of that in the early days, when she was sure they'd figure out who it was that had tried to kill her in a matter of weeks.

She reached the coffee shop five minutes after leaving the apartment-it was only a two block walk-and headed inside the empty space. It was barely after eight AM, she she figured most people weren't out of bed yet.

Aria walked up to the counter and ordered three coffees-Ezra's vanilla macchiatto, a soy pumpkin spice latte for herself, and a triple dirty chai latte for Ethan-as well as Ezra's muffin and an apple fritter for herself.

She stepped over to the side of the counter where her order would be placed once she had paid and stared outside at the empty streets, watching as the occasional person passed up and down the streets. After a few moments, she sighed disdainfully and turned her attention to the barista making her coffee. She missed having friends.

"Order up."

Aria turned her attention back to the present moment and grabbed her purchases off the counter before she headed out of the cafe.

"_What're you going to tell your parents?" Ethan asked in a tone that sounded like a coach. _

"_I was blindfolded and drugged, and I don't remember anything," Aria replied. "I woke up in the woods this morning, and I don't know how I got there. But-"_

_Ethan shook his head. "No but's. And don't hesitate. When they ask about your wounds, you don't know anything. You'll want to get them dirty enough to warrant a hospital visit. And make sure-"_

"_Guys, wait," Ezra interjected as he walked into into the room. "You have to see the TV."_

"_Ezra, wait a few minutes," Ethan replied. _

"_No, seriously," Ezra said, gesturing towards the sitting room. "You need to see this."_

_Aria and Ethan exchanged a glance, but then followed after Ezra into the room, glancing towards the TV as the sound became louder and clearer. _

"_**And this information, on the heels of the announcement of a missing teen. Aria Montgomery is a sixteen year-old Rosewood resident who was last seen at nine PM Friday night with friends. Police have made no announcement as to whether the two incidents are related or not yet. **_

_**If you're just tuning in, there's been an abandoned car found on the side of interstate 85, apparently having been involved in some sort of fire. A body was found in the passenger seat, but there's no news as to who the victim in the car is."**_

_Aria gaped at the TV. "That's-...That was..."_

"_You're sure?" Ethan asked. _

_Aria nodded, lifting her hands to her face. She shook her head in disbelief as she gnawed on her left index finger's second knuckle fearfully. _

"_Someone's trying to make damn sure you're dead, and if not, that you end up that way," Ezra said. _

When Aria returned to the apartment, she settled Ezra and Ethan's coffee orders on the counter and then headed to the sitting room. While Ethan's apartment didn't have a balcony or a brilliant rooftop view, there was a bay window in the sitting room that looked out over a park. Aria enjoyed sitting there and watching the kids run around. It made her feel good; like there was still something to be happy about, even in the face of all her pain.

She pulled herself up onto the ledge and settled into the space, crossing one ankle over the other as she stared down at the ground. There was very little snow on it, but it was still frozen and the grass was pretty much dead.

Usually when she got really depressed, she'd try to focus on the future. If she was with Ezra, he'd fill her thoughts with ideas for the future. With her eighteenth birthday coming up, the world was wide open. He would talk about the home they were going to live in-it was always in some big city, and always in a different place-and the kids they would have. Of course, he always had the house-or apartment, or boat, wherever they lived-completely decorated in a way that she couldn't see. The things they imagined opposite colors for rooms and completely different themes. At that point, he usually had her laughing because she was insistent on having a bright green living room while he felt that blood orange was an acceptable color.

Even so, the idea of a future with Ezra was one of the only things in Aria's life that actually felt palpable. She could imagine their future with such clarity that sometimes she was afraid of what would happen if they ever **did** find out who tried to kill her. She knew freedom would come at a price, and she didn't want that price to be Ezra.

Movement on the second floor caused her to glance up at the ceiling. It was quiet enough that when she heard speaking a moment later, she knew it was Ethan.

She wasn't surprised. They were more like ships passing in the night than anything else. Even so, there was no way Aria could imagine her life one day not including him as well. Ethan had given her so much. In the face of having to give up everyone she loved to stay safe, he became a father figure, among other things.

Footsteps stomped down the stairwell after a minute, and shortly thereafter, Ethan sprinted into the room, still clad in the NYPD sweatpants and t-shirt Aria usually saw him in at night. He had a bag slung across his shoulder as well. He waved at her as he walked over to the mud mat and slipped his feet into his shoes.

"Early morning?" Aria asked.

Ethan nodded. "And hopefully a break in the case. Ezra still asleep?"

Aria nodded back at him. "There's a coffee up there for you."

Ethan turned and glanced back at the counter. Once he had his shoes on, he strode back over to the counter and picked up one of the cups. It was unmarked, and his cup always was. Ethan never ordered anything more than black coffee.

He lifted his cup towards her in a salute before taking a sip from it and heading back over to the door. He dropped his bag next to the door long enough to pull his coat on one-armed.

"Tell Ezra I'll try to make it back before he leaves?"

Aria nodded, and Ethan left the apartment a moment later, tugging the door shut behind him.

.,.

When Ezra woke up, Aria had long finished her coffee, as well as her window gazing, and she had made a place for herself at the kitchen counter with the iPad as well as her laptop. She was lazily working on a banana while apparently scrolling through something as her finger kept tapping a key on the laptop keyboard.

Ezra walked up behind her as he took a sip from his now cold coffee. He gulped it down. "What're you reading?"

"Emails," she replied.

Ezra nodded.

There was a whole process that went into Aria reading the e-mails that still regularly rolled into her inbox, without giving away that she was still alive. Given that it was one of the few things that Rosewood PD still kept tabs on-because apparently they thought, or on some level hoped, that whoever 'killed' her would one day just drop a message in her inbox-Ezra had to make sure they all automatically forwarded to a separate, safe account. Apparently there was a whole process that had to do with a virus in her e-mail's cloud, among other things, but it at least granted her access to the things people sent to her.

In the beginning, Aria used to read through old e-mails both as a way to keep the feeling of her friends and family close, and also with the hope that maybe a memory would shake loose. But of course weeks turned into months, and nothing came up. Until a new email did.

It started out as just one from Hanna, some three months after she'd woken up in that car on the edge of town. It was sad and seemingly heartfelt, and it made Aria miss her friends with a new vengeance. But it also brought up a slew of new questions.

Why was Hanna sending her an e-mail? Did she think Aria was still alive? The press never said Aria was dead, but the body burned beyond recognition was assumed to be hers. So did Hanna think she was still alive? Or better yet, did she **know**?

According to Ezra, at the time, Hanna seemed as sad and depressed as the rest of her friends. The problem with that was that it didn't really lend an answer to Aria's questions about just how sad her friends were to begin with. Moreover, not being able to be in Rosewood and see their reactions for herself made the issue that much worse. She wanted desperately to return to Rosewood permanently to seek out the truth, but over and over, both Ethan and Ezra told her it was a bad idea. So defiant trips that she insisted were her returning to Rosewood for good became two days out of the city.

By the time the six month mark of Aria's disappearance had passed, she'd spent nearly a dozen weekends 'insisting' that she was returning to Rosewood, only to change her mind a few days later and return to New York, frustrated that she didn't know who had hurt her.

After that, Ezra convinced her to take a break from Rosewood. In the months that followed, Aria tried to put her heart into living her life as Harper Buchanan. She finished her high school career, and she even tried her hand at an internship. Granted, it was an internship working in the file room at the Brooklyn Police Department, but still. It kept her busy. Weeks faded slowly into months, and in her attempt to live a new life, Aria tried not to notice that six months folded into a year.

All the while, she tried to let go of those e-mails. She truly did. She tried to put them in her metaphorical rear-view mirror, and focus on her very apparent present. But a full year pretending to be dead, was a full year pretending to be dead. A full year without a hug from her mom, or an argument with her father. A full year of not being able to tell her friends about how in love she was with Ezra. A full year without the people she loved the most.

So on a whim, late at night in the middle of the week while most kids were out at a costume party or trick-or-treating, Aria pulled up her old email account once more, and found herself flooded with more than a hundred messages. She curled up with a freshly-brewed cappuccino-Ezra and Ethan had surprised her with a machine when she'd helped solve a cold case kidnapping-and read her way through dozens of e-mails that her friends and family had sent her. She spent an entire evening curled up at the counter, drinking cup of coffee after cup of coffee, and taking in every ounce of information she'd missed. She laughed, and she cried, and more than once she started a response e-mail before she realized she couldn't actually send them.

After that night, she told Ezra that she was done spending all her time in New York. She was once again insistent on the fact that she was going to return to Rosewood and seek out information on who tried to kill her. As it was, the e-mails her friends had sent her-that sat unread for months-turned up information that was useful to them, though she highly doubted it was anything the police felt was worthy of their time.

Ezra was against her returning, at first. He fully believed her reasoning was driven by the same thing that had driven her to Rosewood earlier in the year. But Aria remained diligent, and she returned to Rosewood against Ezra's wishes.

She quickly learned it wasn't an easy feat, though. She was still required to hide herself, which meant any time spent out of their shared tiny cabin that was out in the middle of nowhere usually happened in Philadelphia or beyond. It made her stir-crazy on more than one occasion, but being there also allowed her to be hands-on in investigating the reasoning for her disappearance. As it was, she usually couldn't join Ezra at the apartment in Rosewood, as it was just too risky. More than once, she'd been forced to hide in his bathroom when people showed up unexpectedly. One time, it had even been her mother, and it had taken all of Aria's strength to stay hidden and quiet while her mother stood just a few feet away.

"Read anything important?" He asked.

Aria exhaled a deep breath.

"There's one from Spencer that's very cryptic. You said they know about the police tracking my e-mail?" Aria glanced over her shoulder at Ezra.

Ezra nodded.

"Well her wording suggests that she's pretty sure she actually saw me last week, but she's not positive. It's very wound up into itself, and she made it sound like she was just seeing what she wanted to, but..." Aria's voice trailed off, and she shook her head. She glanced up at Ezra. "I think she knows, Ezra. And sooner or later, she's going to start asking more questions than she already has."

Ezra nodded, though he looked somewhat skeptical. He took a drink from his coffee and then placed it on the counter.

"So what do you want to do?" He asked.

Aria was quiet for a moment, considering the question. She glanced back at the screen for a few moments, rereading the words on the screen for a bit before she finally looked back up at Ezra, exhaling a deep breath.

"I want to go back to Rosewood-for good this time," She said. "And I want to find a way to tell Spencer she's right."

"Are you absolutely sure that's the right move to make?" Ezra questioned. He took another drink from his coffee.

Aria nodded. "I don't want graduation to happen without knowing who's done all of this. If they graduate before we find out...Ezra, we might **never **find out."

Ezra nodded again, seemingly already somewhat clear on that fact. After a few moments, he exhaled breath. "Alright. How do you want to do it?"


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Aria stared out the window of the penthouse apartment she and Ezra were currently checking out, watching water slap up against the side of the cement outside. The building was riverfront property, so it was on the edge of Rosewood and neighbors were pretty sparse. As it was, the property looked pretty run-down from the outside which kept a lot of people away, but it had been bought a few months earlier by a Realtor who was trying to build the area up in to something better.

She knew the reason Ezra liked the place-and was even entertaining the idea of living there-was because he insisted the fact that the outside didn't tell anything about the inside gave the place 'character'. For herself though, Aria liked it because it brought them closer to everyone and everything she wanted and needed access to.

"Hey."

Aria looked up as Ezra walked out of the hallway across the room.

"Hmm?"

Ezra strode over to her and looked out towards the river rushing up against the rocks below outside.

"Where's the realtor?" Aria asked.

"Taking a call," Ezra replied as he reached up and brushed strands of hair out of Aria's face. "Where's your head at?"

Aria nodded, looking around the open space more thoroughly than she had before. The living area was completely bare, but she had some ideas about it. She'd also been quite into the idea that one of the bedrooms had a walk-in closet that she desperately wanted to turn into their-for lack of a better term-headquarters. It was tucked away in the back of the apartment, closed behind a room that would more than likely just be an area for books, and there was plenty more room than the cabin held for all of their charts and papers.

"I want it," she said.

Ezra nodded back at her, inhaling a deep breath. Aria wasn't surprised by the apprehension on his face. Even if he loved the place, he was less supportive of her living so close to the city, where she could be seen so easily.

"Look, if I was going to spend another year hiding inside the confines of four walls pretending not to exist, I could see turning this down," Aria said as she leaned into him. Ezra looked down at her. "But it's not like that. I need them asking questions, Ezra. I need stir the pot if I ever want to tell people I'm still alive."

Even with Aria's comments, Ezra didn't say anything, and his expression didn't change. Aria exhaled a frustrated breath and walked away from him, twisting off the cap of the bottle of water she held in her hands and taking a sip as she walked towards the kitchen.

"Aria," he called after her.

She shook her head as she turned around and looked back at him. "I don't want to hear it. Because honestly, if it was you-"

Ezra raised his hands next to his head in surrender. "You're right. If it was me, I'd be climbing the walls to get back to the people I loved. I honestly can't imagine being the one who can't call my parents or talk to my brother any time I want. But I'm worried that you're being too hasty about this, Aria."

She threw her arms up as a breath of sadness choked out of her chest. She was on the verge of tears, and she hated it. "So what? Maybe I am. But I don't want to spend the next year sitting by while everyone I used to know gets to graduate highschool and go off to college. I don't want to live in the shadows anymore, Ezra. I want to actually live this life."

Ezra was silent, but after a few seconds, he nodded. "Alright. We'll make it happen."

.,.

Being a teacher at Rosewood Day while simultaneously trying to find out who in Aria's life tried to kill her had always been a delicate balance for Ezra. He constantly had to be entirely aware of his surroundings, especially when it came to Aria's former friends. Granted, he'd never worried that they questioned whether he was the one who was trying to get information from them, but he often wondered if they knew more then they were letting on. Every now and then, he'd catch Spencer eyeing him in a peculiar way...

"Mr. Fitz?"

He glanced up from the black board and spotted Spencer herself standing in the doorway. He eyed her curiously for a moment-he couldn't help himself. The last few days' events had him questioning every move the four girls were making. With Mike no longer involved in the search for Aria's killer-or rather, her attacker-a lot rested on Ezra's shoulders and if anything went wrong or someone got hurt, he was at risk for a long more trouble than just checking into an institution.

Ezra cleared his throat and shook his head, as though he were shaking away thoughts. "Yes, Ms. Hastings?"

Spencer seemed to stand there for a moment too long, as though she wasn't entirely sure she trusted him. Ezra was used to it. She'd been that way towards him since his first day as the girl's teacher over a year and a half ago, though he'd never figured out why. Aria's friends didn't know about his relationship with her.

Spencer glanced back towards the hallway and then stepped into the room after a moment. Her expression was conflicted, as though she weren't entirely sure she was making the right choice. "I ju-..." She paused and sighed, glancing down at her books in her arms, and then she looked back up at him. "I um, I was-"

She stopped again, breathed, and huffed at herself. Ezra could practically hear her yelling at herself to pull it together.

"Whatever it is, Spencer, you can tell me." He assured her. He was hopeful that it would be something he could use to help Aria-he'd always had that hope, even as weeks turned into months-but he didn't expect it.

"It's just that, my parents are,- well I mean they expect..." Spencer groaned at herself. She slammed her books down on the edge of his desk hard enough that they both blinked a slight flinch at her frustration. "Ugh!"

After that, she was quiet for a bit, and Ezra waited for her to find the words to process her thoughts. But seconds continued on into over a minute.

Ezra eased the piece of chalk he'd been holding onto the dusty tray below the chalkboard and turned towards her. "Whatever it is, Spencer, you have my confidence here. I promise, it won't leave this room."

She nodded, looking up at him with shining eyes. "I didn't get in to Penn State," she confessed. "And it's what my family expects..." She shook her head, looking around the room as she cupped a hand to her cheek. Ezra knew her thoughts just by the expression on her face and the sadness in her eyes. The _'how do I do this'_ feeling of with the weight of the world on your shoulders. "There's just been so much," she muttered under her breath.

Ezra opened his mouth, was halfway to asking her what she meant by her statement, and then decided not to. _Too eager_, he reminded himself. They wanted Spencer-all of Aria's friends, really-to feel as though reaching out to Ezra was a natural movement, not one that was plotted, expected, and planned. Fortunately for him, though, Spencer was still staring at a random spot on the other side of the room, and there was a clear frustration and pain in her eyes that made him feel for her.

He could always see it in their eyes-the disconnect and complete and utter frustration and sadness at the fact that Aria's killer was just out of reach. He sometimes wondered if they felt like it was one step forward and two steps back, because it's certainly how he felt. How he knew Aria felt. And really, how could they not? Neither he nor Aria believed that all four girls had done it together. But still, that meant that one girl knew and was lying to the other three.

And lying was what those girls did best.

Spencer finally looked back up at him, and exhaled a breath, finally seeming to pull herself together. "Emily told me you're helping with college essays," she said. "And well...I need help."

"Oh," Ezra said, somewhat surprised. He quickly shook it off though, not letting himself miss a beat. "Yeah, sure. What did you need help with?"

Spencer inhaled a deep breath. "Well I was thinking of sticking closer to home? Applying to Hollis, and a few places in Pittsburgh? I just-...I feel like what I wrote probably had something to do with the rejection," she explained. After a beat, she dug into the folder resting atop her books and pulled out a packet. She passed it to him.

Ezra skimmed the first few paragraphs on the page, taking in a word here and there but not really reading. From what he saw though, he could tell that she'd made it very personal and detailed. Maybe too much so. He nodded, and looked back up at her. "Is this what you sent in?"

Spencer nodded. "I thought honesty was the best option. Apparently not."

Ezra nodded, though waving a dismissive hand at the same time, a _dont worry, we'll fix this _gesture. He looked back at Spencer and smiled gently at her. "We can work this out. Don't worry, Spencer."

She nodded again, and even though it was clear she was there was a lot going through her head in that moment, she looked slightly hopeful.

Ezra glanced back down at the paper, and settled it onto the desk. "Alright, well I've got some time tomorrow at lunch? And again after school? I'm a bit of a monkey, working around everyone's extracurricular schedules, but-"

"After school is fine," she responded before he could say anything else.

Ezra nodded again back at her, leaning down to scribble a note of it on the giant paper calender resting on his desk. It was the only way he kept his work schedule straight against everything else. When he was finished, Spencer was still standing in the doorway, and in the briefest second, they both opened their mouths to say something, but a bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Spencer forced a smile onto her face and then turned and walked away, leaving Ezra wondering once more what it was that she had to say.

.,.

Days passed. Ezra signed a year's lease to the riverfront penthouse apartment, and Aria spent the following three days after that moving things from the cabin to Rosewood before making a final trip to New York to pack up the few things she had there. If she spoke to Ethan at all, she didn't mention it at all, and Ezra didn't hear from his father. He knew that the older man and Aria were sort-of at odds over the move back to Rosewood, but strictly in a parental manner. In Ethan's opinion, Aria was officially a Fitz family member, regardless of anything. She'd spent more than a year under his watchful care, and Ezra had been warned more than enough times of the fact that Aria was still in danger. But he also reminded his father that he had little to do with Aria's choices when it came to her future as Aria Montgomery. Even if Aria was quite literally a caged bird, reminding her of that fact would only lead to trouble.

Of course, Aria's version of moving meant that things she could carry were taken. She left him to care for the things that required heavy lifting-the bed, mostly-and took what she could get on her own. That left the penthouse apartment looking uninhabited. Unless, of course, the person entering the apartment walked down the hall to the bedrooms. The one they shared together was filled with boxes, and of course the bed, while the other room within the apartment would eventually be used as office space. For now, it was empty, save for a butterfly chair and Aria's laptop. It's connected walk-in closet however, was already wallpapered in the things that had Aria had brought from the cabin and put up all over the walls. It looked like something directly out of a movie, what with all the string connecting one thing to the next.

When she wasn't moving things from one place to another, she was attempting to weave a new theory into the night of her attempted murder that would-and maybe someday soon, **could**-lead her to the truth that could let her live her life again. That of course, started with getting Spencer alone.

And that started with a text message. Or rather, a snapchat.

It was a risk. Everything was always a risk. But sending a message through an app was definitely a risk because it opened her up to a million different chances that someone might realize that she was still alive. Even so, she needed a guarantee that the photo she sent to the taller brunette girl would in fact arrive to Spencer, and then promptly be deleted. She couldn't risk putting herself out in front of anyone else.

So it started with a photo. And then Aria added a perfectly coined text that might have come from 'A'. Ezra couldn't send the message himself, lest he draw suspicion to himself. So she waited until she knew Spencer would be heading to he final class of the day-a study hall, according to the schedule she'd gotten from Ezra a few days earlier-and proceeded to send the photo through. It was a few weeks old, snapped of her poured over a book in Ethan's kitchen.

Shortly after she sent the photo, she followed it with the text.

_**This is five weeks old. Want to know more?**_

_**Don't tell a soul. Get up and leave. Now. **_

There was plenty of hacking involved with how Aria knew that Spencer get up and go. Finding a hacker to do the depth and amount of coding they needed done to begin with was expensive _and _scary, but Caleb Rivers had become a key member of their little team, regardless of how little he knew. After all, anyone that didn't ask too much about her and the fact that she was always covered like she had something to hide-overly large sunglasses, scarves covering half her face, and of course well fitting wigs-was good by her. Anyway, she was sure that before long, the FBI would be looking to employ him. He was brilliant beyond words with a computer.

After she sent the text, waiting for Spencer arrive was only a matter of time. She had no intention of making the situation look like anything other than what it was. She was bringing the taller girl to her because she was the only one questioning the possibility of Aria being alive outwardly, as far as Aria could tell, and of the four girls, Spencer was the one Aria least suspected. Plus, she needed to bring Spencer around to trusting her before they hit her with the truth about 'A'.

She started out flipping through a magazine in the chair in the empty office. And then she was standing inside the closet, staring at the papers tacked up to the wall, as though they would tell her how to hold her nerve. The more time that passed though, the more nervous she became. She was quickly realizing, it was one thing to postulate she was alive to the people that believed she was dead. It was another thing entirely to actually let them see that she was.

In a matter of seconds, she was ready to run. Having shoved her feet into her shoes and locked up the apartment before she donned a dark jacket and a well-fitting blond wig-she had dark sunglasses in her car-she headed for the door. Spencer would arrive to find it locked, but she wouldn't find anything, and even if she tried to get into their closet filled with evidence, it had a number of locks on it that would keep her out. Plus, they were set to have an alarm system set up before the weekend, so before the girls would ever find a chance to get back into the apartment, they'd be permanently locked out.

She had her phone out, typing over and over into it _'I was wrong I was wrong I was wrong!' _as she headed for the door. Of course just as she reached it, she could hear the knob turning. She gulped, turning her head back and forth in fear. What if Spencer **was **the one who had tried to kill her? What if she really **was **an idiot?

She was panicked, utterly terrified of what could happen if Spencer stepped into the apartment. She knew it was stupid, but there was barely less than few seconds before the door would open, so she ducked behind the kitchen counter. Shortly thereafter, the door creaked open, and footsteps sounded on the hardwood floors. She flinched as she listened to the sound of boots click-clack, stopping only briefly when she assumed Spencer was confused by the empty space.

"Huh."

Aria glanced up suddenly, looking around the area she could see. The sound had been soft, but clearly there was something that Spencer was questioning. It took her a few seconds, but she spotted it.

A dirty glass sitting next to the sink. The click-clacking started again and Aria began to hyperventilate, pressing herself backwards roughly against the counter. When the taller girl finally came around the side of it, there was a brief period-no more than three or four seconds-where Aria and Spencer stared back and forth between one another wordlessly. Aria half-expected Spencer to come at her, ready to kill her. But instead, Spencer dropped to her knees in front of her.

"Aria?"

Aria inhaled and exhaled in shaky breaths, trying to find the right words; the proper first words to say to someone after two years. But instead, the only words that passed her lips were the ones she had to say.

"Was it you?"

Tears flooded Spencer's eyes as she stared back at Aria. They quickly fell over, and Spencer threw a hand up, wiping them away. She shook her head. "No," she rasped. "No, Aria."

Tears filled Aria's own eyes, and before she could stop herself, she threw herself into Spencer, hugging her tightly. Spencer hugged her back just as tightly, neither of them speaking as they cried. It was ironic, really. There were too many questions that needed to be asked, too many things to be wary about, but this was something Aria hadn't had in more than a year. More than that, it was something she needed.

They were in that position for some time, not speaking the entire time. Eventually though, Aria ran out of tears, and the two girls sunk back against the floor, sitting side by side. After a few more minutes, Aria looked back up at Spencer. She watched as Spencer wiped away more tears on her face before reaching up and tugging the awful blond wig off of her head.

"It's really not your color," Spencer attempted to joke. Aria couldn't help laughing at the comment. The fact that it didn't make her look like herself was exactly why she'd gotten it.

"I much prefer my regular hair," Aria replied. After she spent a few seconds trying to figure out where to place the wig, she placed it up on the counter behind them, out of sight.

"Have you been here the whole time?" Spencer asked tentatively.

Aria shook her head, though she didn't offer up more than that. She wasn't ready.

"Why leave?" Spencer asked next. "Why not go to the cops?"

Aria tilted her head up toward the ceiling, staring at the perfect white paint. More tears threatened to fall, but she was determined to keep it together.

"I didn't have anything to tell the cops. I don't remember anything." She looked over at Spencer. "That whole day is gone."

Spencer's lips parted as though she might ask a question, but whatever she wanted to say was dead in her mouth. Aria knew what she was feeling. It was a million unanswered questions that she didn't know how to start to ask.

"I was going to come home," Aria said. "I had this whole plan, but then the news was on, and they were talking about how there was a car accident-the same car I woke up in the night before. The next thing I knew, they were saying it was my body in the car, burned beyond recognition."

"And you have no clue who did it?" Spencer asked.

Aria shook her head. "I don't even know whose car it was."

"It was rented and then stolen," Spencer commented. Aria steeled a glance at her.

"How'd you find that out?" Aria asked.

Spencer shrugged. "Hanna's mom is dating a guy on the police force."

"Right," Aria nodded. "Darren Wilden."

Spencer nodded as well. "It took months, but we sneaked a look at the file one night while he was...distracted."

Aria's brow furrowed. "Shouldn't it be snuck?"

"What?" Spencer looked over at her, utterly confused.

"Sneak. Sneaked. Snuck," Aria commented.

Spencer raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn't that a question Hanna would ask?"

The two girls stared at one another for a few seconds before Aria started to laugh. It was the kind of laugh that usually came before someone fell into tears, but she was determined to hold herself together. She had to get through this.

"So, Wilden thinks one of you stole the car?" Aria asked.

"Half the time, I don't know **what** he's thinking anymore," Spencer replied. "I know he believes we know more about that night..." Spencer paused, shaking her head as she stared into space. She looked over at Aria after a moment. "I used to believe he was right. That we **did** know more. I thought maybe we just weren't looking hard enough, because we were drinking. But I've spent _**weeks**_laying in bed, digging through every word, every look. Nothing fits."

There was a flash of something in Spencer's eyes as she said that, something Aria wanted to ask more about. But before she could say anything, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and checked the text.

_**On my way back.**_

"Do you have to go?" Spencer asked. Her voice sounded like she might break if Aria actually said yes.

Aria shook her head, turning to look back at Spencer. "What happened that night? What do_you _remember?"

Spencer lifted her fingers into her hair, scratching her head. "Do you have something to drink?"

Aria nodded, and both girls moved off the floor. Aria opened the fridge across from them, gesturing for Spencer to take her pick. After Spencer grabbed a bottle of water, Aria grabbed one as well and then she hopped up onto the counter, once again shoving the blond wig aside.

Spencer took a long sip of water and swallowed it down before setting the bottle on the counter. "I remember showing up when the sun was going down. Alison was pissed at me because she wanted me to tell Melissa about kissing Ian. She was hoping they'd break up."

Spencer sighed at her statement about kissing Ian. She'd never told Aria about it.

"You kissed Ian?"

Spencer nodded. "Little did I know at the time, he was spending quite a bit of time with Alison. It's actually pretty creepy." She shuddered. "He-uh...we thought he was stalking us a few months back-a little more than a year ago now, actually. Anyway, she went at him in a church about it, and he beat her up pretty badly. Tried to kill her. Melissa shoved him off the bell tower and saved her life. She, uh...she changed a lot after that."

Aria nodded. She could understand that. Someone had tried to kill her too.

"Anyway, after the fight, she took off. Later, she said she'd been with Ian, but all we really knew was that she came up with two bottles of Jack. Bu- um, you came out after she left; said you heard us screaming from inside the barn. You'd been on the phone, and the guy you were dating could hear it."

Aria's brow furrowed. "You- you knew-" 

"That you were dating Fitz?" Spencer asked. Aria's jaw dropped.

"Not until that night," Spencer replied without Aria's prompt. "When you came outside, you said that comment about the fight, and I was still pissed so I think I shook my head or rolled my eyes. I was going to go back inside the barn, but you grabbed my arm and said you needed to talk. You told me his name, and when I said it sounded familiar, you said 'it's because he's our new english teacher'."

"You remember what I said?" Aria questioned.

Spencer nodded again. "I couldn't get it out of my head after you went missing. For weeks after, I thought he was the one who killed you, but he had a solid alibi."

Aria nodded. "New York."

Spencer blinked a few times, and then her brow furrowed. "Of _course_. He's the one who got you out! B-but then wouldn't that make him-"

"A suspect?" Aria finished for her. "If Ezra did it, don't you think I'd be dead by now?"

Spencer nodded, rolling her eyes with a sigh. "I guess. Anyway, you told me about how you found out that he was going to be our teacher, and you didn't know what to do. You wanted to tell your parents, but I said it wouldn't go over well, and you'd be better to just break up with him. You weren't happy with me about it, but Alison came back with the alcohol, and Cecee was with her.

"Anyhow, we went back inside, and we started drinking. Alison made this comment about friends sharing secrets, and I looked at you. You got upset with me, because you thought I was instigating you to say something about Ezra. I didn't mean it to happen that way, but you didn't believe me. We argued again later, and you decided to leave."

Tears filled Spencer's eyes, but she was quick to wipe them away. Aria judged every sight of tears she saw for well over a year now, but it was clear, Spencer was actually upset, and not just putting on a show. "You told me to screw off, and you left. I figured you'd turn up the next morning, and we'd apologize, like always."

Aria nodded, biting the inside of her cheek as she recalled waking in that car once more. "All I knew when I woke up in that car was that I had no clue how I'd gotten there." She shook away the memory before it could suck her under, looking at Spencer with a ghost of a smile. "I went to Ezra, and he took me to New York. I've been there on and off ever since."

"Do his parents know about you?" Spencer asked.

Aria shrugged. "His dad found out that night. He didn't approve, but when I couldn't come home, he helped. I guess his mom found out about us though, before that night, so as far as she knows, I'm dead."

Spencer nodded. "So you and Fitz..."

Aria didn't have to respond, because a second later, the door was opening, and Ezra was stepping inside the building. Both girls turned and watched as Ezra crossed the threshold.

"Fitz," Spencer said as he closed the door. He looked back at her.

"Ms. Hastings. You seem less surprised than I expected." He replied.

"Apparently I told her that night," Aria said from behind the taller girl.

Ezra nodded, looking back and forth between the two of them. He looked back at Spencer.

"So all the awkward stares, the too-long pauses..."

Spencer rolled a shoulder. "Wondering if you were the one."

Ezra nodded. The two of them exchanged a look for a bit longer before Ezra looked over at Aria.

"Have you shown her?"

Aria shook her head, chewing once again on the inside of her cheek. "No. I, uh, I was going to run, before she got here, so I haven't gotten to that yet."

"Shown me what?" Spencer questioned.

Aria hopped down off the counter. "There's no easy way to explain this."

Spencer moved after her, tilting her head to the side. "What do you _mean_ explain?"

Aria moved past Spencer, walking towards the hallway. "I've been digging for answers since day one." She glanced behind her to be sure Spencer was following after her, and spotted Ezra just a few feet behind the other girl. Aria turned into the empty office and then headed towards the closed closet door. She dug into her pocket for a set of keys, setting about unlocking the four locks on the door.

"You're not about to show me a dead body, are you?" Spencer asked. "You're not hiding drugs in there?"

Aria chuckled softly, shaking her head. "Not at all."

She finished unlocking all the locks, and then eased the door open for Spencer to enter first. She followed in after her, and then hit the light switch.

She knew what Spencer was seeing. It was like walking into a horror movie, Aria was sure. Between the lines of yarn connecting back and forth, and the myriad of pictures below notes made on rolls of paper stuck all over the walls. It was all very specific in its placement, and yet also an onslaught to unassuming eyes.

Spencer looked back and forth between Aria and Ezra, and then back at the walls, and finally to the computer sitting in the corner of the room. She looked back at Ezra once more.

"It's you. You're A."


End file.
